Finding simple moments for what you love.

food

The other night I had a roast on the menu. Since my Instant Pot is my new best friend in the kitchen, I pulled together a couple of different recipes/ideas to make this quick & tasty dinner. This turned out so delicious & tender! Of course my kids complained, but the adults enjoyed it!

2-3 lb roast

1 Tbsp Beef Soup Base mixed with 1 1/2 C water

4-5 Whole Potatoes – unpeeled

5-6 Carrots cut into chunks

Small onion rough cut

2 cloves garlic smashed

Salt, Pepper, Granulated Garlic

Olive Oil

2 Tbsp flour mixed with cold water

Season the roast with salt, pepper & granulated garlic.

Heat oil in the electric pressure cooker (use the saute button), then brown the roast on all sides – 2-4 minutes per side.

Select the saute button again, add the flour/water mixture and stir until the gravy thickens.

I was a little skeptical about cooking the potatoes and carrots for so long, but I read on a post that leaving the potatoes uncut and unpeeled keeps them from getting mushy. They were perfect with some butter & gravy – mmmm mmm! The carrots were not too mushy either.

A few days ago I wrote a post about Fast, Simple & Easy (FSE) cards. Now I’d like to talk about FSE food – but not the take out or drive through kind! I’ve used a slow cooker for several years – while it was easy, it wasn’t necessarily fast. However, if I remembered to start it in the morning, I could come home from work and dinner would be finished.

A couple of years ago, I found out about freezer meals or once-a-month cooking – make a bunch of meals on one day, put them in the freezer & then finish them off when you want to eat. The great thing about freezer meals is your prep work is all done at the same time for several meals so the time savings is awesome!

Next I learned about pressure cookers & eventually purchased an electric pressure cooker – now dinner time is REALLY FSE!! Here are some ideas for freezer meals you can prep ahead of time and then pop into a pressure cooker for a great meal –

Soup – soups are another great option – if you’re making a chicken soup (like Chicken Enchilada or the recipe I share below) you don’t even need to cook the chicken before hand.

I love that I can be playing in my craft room all day 🙂 AND get a healthy meal on the table for my family quickly! Here’s a recipe I tried recently for a White Chicken Chili – it’s adapted from a Lambertslately.com recipe –

5 chicken breast halves

1 chopped onion

1 clove minced garlic

2 tsp chicken bullion/broth base

1 can garbanzo beans (chickpeas), drained

1 can great northern beans, drained

1 can corn with juice

8 oz diced green chiles

1 Tbsp cumin

2 tsp salt

2 tsp pepper

Add these ingredients to your freezer container and freeze. When you’re ready to prepare, add meal and 1 1/2 cups water to your pressure cooker. Cook on high for 25 minutes, then let the pressure release naturally. When pressure is released, shred chicken, add 4 oz cream cheese and 4-8 oz of colby jack cheese. Stir – allow the cheeses to melt and serve.

Of course, if you don’t want to freeze this first – just cook away. I’m guessing this will work in a slow cooker as well for 8 hours on low.

My youngest picky eater absolutely loved this recipe – ate it for breakfast and then asked if he could make it on the weekend.

I try to pay attention to what my family eats. I would prefer all natural, no sugar, no junk – I do my best but don’t always win that battle. I was surprised to find sugar in the list of ingredients when I started looking at spaghetti sauce in the grocery store. I could make my own, but the thought of babysitting the pot while it simmered was not very appealing. Enter the pressure cooker! I found this recipe when I purchased a stove top pressure cooker and grew to love it even more when I got an electric! It is literally set it & forget it! And it’s a very forgiving recipe so if you don’t have something on hand you can adapt, substitute or omit it (except of course for the tomatoes!)

I am quite fond of Chicken Enchilada soup – it’s a great option if you are gluten or dairy free or if you’re on a Paleo plan – leave out the corn and beans and it’s still a yummy option. Even better, making it in a pressure cooker is quick and easy. I love using my Instant Pot to get healthy meals on the table quickly. I can’t necessarily say I have a recipe. I’ve gleaned this from various posts and never really paid attention to where they came from (SORRY).

No pictures on this one – but it’s so so simple – add 2 boneless, skinless chicken breast (these can even be frozen), a carton of chicken broth, a can of enchilada sauce (hotness based on your taste – I use mild), a can of fire roasted diced tomatoes and a can of tomatoes with green chilies to your pressure cooker inner pot. Close and seal the lid, cook on Manual, high pressure for 5 minutes. Allow this to natural pressure release for 10 minutes – release the remaining pressure.

Shred the chicken (I found this great salad chopper thing from the Pampered Chef that lets me shred the cooked chicken without even taking it from the pot!). Add 2 cups of frozen corn and 2 cans of rinsed black beans if you eat them – additional seasonings – salt, pepper is all I used.

Close and seal the lid again, and cook using the soup setting for 10 minutes (if you don’t have a soup setting – use manual/high pressure for 10 minutes) – followed by quick pressure release.

Earlier this year I discovered the joys of the Instant Pot. Yes, I know – pressure cookers have been around for years. And I own a stove top one which I purchased a few years ago after my friend raved about hers but, quite honestly I had to get over my fear that they would explode! What I love about the Instant Pot in particular is the pre-programmed buttons.

One of my favorite buttons is the Yogurt button. I love that I can make yogurt at home without any sweeteners or add junk. It’s purely milk and the cultures. My kids don’t want to eat it, but I enjoy it thoroughly. You can make a large batch using the inner pot, but I don’t eat that much yogurt, so I find it easier to do it directly into 1/2 pint jars. This has the added benefit that when it’s done – it’s done. I simply plop a lid on the jars & pop them into the fridge. Some folks like to strain their yogurt, so they would be better off using the inner pot.

Here’s how easy it is…

Pour milk (of your choice – full fat, skim, or whatever %) into clean canning jars. Place the jars of milk on top of the steam rack with 1 Cup of water in the Instant Pot.

Steam the milk for 1 minute then let the pressure release naturally. This kills off any unwanted yuckies – bacteria, mold, yeast – you want your good yogurt making bacteria that you’ll add later to be the only thing in there. This step also breaks down some of the proteins so the bacteria can get to work on them.

Remove the jars from the IP and wait for the temperature to drop below 115 degrees. I use a canning jar lifter so I don’t have to worry about spilling hot milk on myself.

The cooled milk will have a slight skim of milk on top – remove this with a clean spoon. Add a spoonful of plain yogurt to each jar and stir. For my initial batch, I bought a container of plain Greek yogurt for my starter. Now, whenever I’m down to my last jar, I start a new batch using the yogurt I made. You can also freeze your starter – but you’ll need to remember to thaw it before you start the new batch.

Move the jars back to the IP and press the Yogurt button. I believe the standard time is 8 hours – I generally leave it as set. I usually make my yogurt at night before I go to bed, so sometimes I will add time so the finished product is not sitting on the counter until I get up. I’ve heard this could make the yogurt tangier – but I haven’t noticed a difference.

When it’s all finished, the IP shows ‘Yogt’ – and your yummy yogurt is waiting for you. You’ll notice the liquid on top of my finished product – this is the whey that some people like to strain off. I just stir it back in when I’m ready to eat.

So there you go – the whole process (using 8 hours for the incubation) takes about 9 hours. The active time in the beginning (steaming & cooling the milk, adding in the cultures) probably takes about an hour. So – you can plan it just right to start at night before you go to bed and wake up to a fresh batch of yogurt.

I use mine in sauces and I like to eat it with freeze dried fruit & sometimes some granola. If I want it a bit sweeter, I just add a touch of local honey. If you’ve made yogurt, or decide to try – I’d love to hear how it works for you.

So I mentioned last week that I have ventured into clean eating over the past few years. What that essentially means is eliminating processed foods – this really changed my cooking style – but it’s been a fun journey. My kids aren’t always super cooperative, they want their mac-n-cheese, hotdogs, and sugary treats. It often seems like a constant battle, but one dinner they both enjoy is Sloppy Joe sandwiches. Here’s a recipe for you to try – this is a combination of recipes from Make Ahead Paleo, by Tammy Credicott and Everyday Paleo Family Cookbook, by Sarah Fragoso.